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The U.S. Needs a UN Mission Which Will Stand with Our Allies, Defend Our Interests, Ros-Lehtinen Says

Dec 4, 2012

The U.S. Needs a UN Mission Which Will Stand with Our Allies, Defend Our Interests, Ros-Lehtinen Says

(WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, made the following statement regarding the failure of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations to rally support for Israel during the recent vote concerning the upgrade of the Palestinians to non-voting observer state status.

Statement by Ros-Lehtinen:

“The recent vote in the UN to upgrade the Palestinians to non-voting observer state status was a blow to the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. It is apparent that the U.S. Mission to the UN failed to convince our partners to stand with our ally Israel in her time of need and allowed Abu Mazen’s anti-peace, unilateral statehood scheme to move forward.

“However, this failure by our UN mission is not its first. According to former U.S Mission to the United Nations spokesman Richard Grenell, the U.S. has lead the most inactive UN Security Council in over 20 years and failed to show up to Security Council meetings regarding Israeli security issues, including an emergency meeting on the Gaza flotilla crisis and the last open meeting before the recent vote concerning the Palestinian’s bid for non-voting observer state status.

“These failures are not limited to only issues concerning our ally Israel. As cited by Grenell, the U.S. failed to call an emergency meeting of the Security Council after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, skipped the debate and vote to add additional peacekeepers after the Haitian earthquake, and when Iran, a flagrant human rights abuser was elected to the UN Women’s Commission and when brutal Libyan dictator Gaddafi was elected to the UN Human Rights Commission, the mission failed to speak out against these outrages.

“The purpose of the U.S. Mission to the UN is to defend our allies and take measures to ensure our security and interests are protected at all times, not just when it is convenient. According to the instances cited by Grenell, the U.S. Mission has failed at these tasks.”